Tourism industry asks for all remaining backpackers to have their visas extended by 12 months

Australia’s tourism industry has asked the federal government to allow remaining backpackers to stay in the country for another year.

The tourism industry has intervened in the backpackers debate, asking for all remaining backpackers to have their visas extended by a year to fill worker shortages and boost tourism.

Australia’s tourism industry has asked the federal government to allow remaining backpackers to stay in the country for another year, saying the “free-falling” number of people on working holiday visas required “an urgent circuit-breaker”.

With the horticulture sector estimating the 141,000 backpackers in Australia on January 1 has dropped to just 73,000, Australian Tourism Industry Council executive director Simon Westaway said a one-year extension of their visas would help stabilise the agricultural workforce.

The workers should also be able to work for more than one employer, he said, and foreign travellers who previously held a working holiday-maker visa with a specific employer should be able to re-enter the workforce in a “designated critical region”.

“Without urgent federal government intervention, despite their existing focus on the issue, we genuinely fear the working holiday-maker program will all but stop in its tracks by early 2021,” Mr Westaway told The Australian.

“This is because the response to COVID-19 has contributed to a hard-closed international border, tight caps on international arrivals and a high outflow from Australia of departing backpackers.

“ATIC believes Australia’s continual high appeal to backpackers could easily be turned into a catalyst for future international visitor recovery and backs a fast-tracked pilot program for them.”

Backpackers tend to stay longer in Australia, spend more and cover more ground.

Mr Westaway said the reduction in these workers meant hostels, specialist backpacker accommodation and bus and transport companies had lost many “high-valued tourists”.

Last year, 308,000 working holiday-makers spent $3.2bn in Australia and stayed 45.9 million nights, according to Tourism Research Australia.

Tyson Cattle, national public affairs manager at vegetable peak industry body AUSVEG, said a declining number of backpackers and exhausted seasonal workers who were “ready to go home” were exacerbating worker shortages.

“We’ll probably see a greater depreciation of those backpacker numbers in the lead-up to Christmas. That’s obviously our peak period,” he said. “If we see a mass exodus over November and December, who will replace them?”

The Morrison government announced in April that working holiday makers who worked in agriculture or food processing would be exempt from the six-month work limitation if their visa was due to expire within six months.

Federal cabinet is set to consider a suite of measures as early as this week to encourage Australians to take up jobs often held by backpackers.